Mike Gillis again gets a great defenseman under contract for the prime years of his career without going much beyond that where we see some players games fall off a cliff, all without giving up a big chunk of cap space to do it. Edler's new contract would be tied for the 24th highest cap hit in the league this season, that's fantastic for a player with all the tools he has.

Even better, his cap hit is in line for what he's capable of right now - he shouldn't feel pressured by his deal to turn into Shea Weber or anything like that, which is fortunate because we can expect the flaws in his game to be a bit more apparent while he learns to play the right side more effectively.

One thing I do wonder about - despite being happy with Edler as a player and happy with his new contract - is whether there's any movement clause.

Mike Gillis again gets a great defenseman under contract for the prime years of his career without going much beyond that where we see some players games fall off a cliff, all without giving up a big chunk of cap space to do it. Edler's new contract would be tied for the 24th highest cap hit in the league this season, that's fantastic for a player with all the tools he has.

Even better, his cap hit is in line for what he's capable of right now - he shouldn't feel pressured by his deal to turn into Shea Weber or anything like that, which is fortunate because we can expect the flaws in his game to be a bit more apparent while he learns to play the right side more effectively.

One thing I do wonder about - despite being happy with Edler as a player and happy with his new contract - is whether there's any movement clause.

danbobrob...if you are happy with him as a player and like his contract why would you even care about a movement clause?

"I just want to say one word to you. Just one word. Are you listening? - Plastics." - The Graduate

dbr wrote:Because if you have four players and $18.7m in cap space on your blueline tied up under various NTCs then you would be hard-pressed to make a major upgrade... if one came along.

I don't know what one will but if it was all the same I'd like to leave my options open if I were running the show.

No offense danbobrob, but Edler in my books, is one of few untouchables on this team. At his age and well rounded game and size and intelligence.

Gillis needs to call up Holmgren and ask him for a few pointers on how to do a quick rebuild when things are going stale without hurting the team and make BOLD moves.

What's with you and Holmgren?

The guy blew up his team after they collapsed and went packing in front of weak goaltending. It wasn't a great move by any stretch of the imagination. They made it all the way to the Finals in front of some of the shittiest goaltenders to ever get to the big dance (actually both team had questionable goaltending that year, just hot at the right time), then he doesn't address the goaltending and they get bounced early the next year. Go figure. No surprise. June 23rd rolls around, he then makes moves, dumps salary, and signs Ilya Bryzgalov all on the same day. The result? The team's GA goes up, their differential goes down, they drop 3 places in the overall standings, and then draw the lucky card in the deck that causes MAF and the Pens to completely shit the bed so the team in front of their new goaltender can right the ship he is sinking and get them into the next round where they are bounced by the Devils (who scored 40 fewer regular season goals) in 5 games. Brilliance. Solid gold when it comes to the stuff great GM's are made of.

dbr wrote:duh huh. Funny you should mention Holmgren, because Gillis would have a hard time making BOLD moves on the blue line if he handed out a fourth NTC.

The bold move Gillis needs to make is sitting right there, it's Roberto Luongo. Throw in another quality asset, and I mean somebody that is more endearing in the eyes of other GM's than the Schroeders and Raymonds and get some presence on the 2nd line to play with Kesler when he comes back. Our defense isn't the problem.

"I just want to say one word to you. Just one word. Are you listening? - Plastics." - The Graduate

I thought Gillis took a big risk not signing Edler before the CBA expired but as it turns out it seems to have worked in his favour big time.

According to HW the Edler camp was looking for 6 to 6.5 last year and based on the signings we saw this summer that isn't out of line. I guess the back problems and the uncertainty of free agency with a shrinking cap changed things a lot in the Canucks favour.

The icing on the cake is the fact that the deal runs from age 27 through 33, which is typically the prime years for top4 defenseman.

In one aspect of this am I sitting beside RD and saying Gillis is a moron.....

Edler has a tendancy to play soft when he is capable of being physical. Shoulda waited it out and seen what the kid can do when he's actually playing for a new contract. Now that he's got it I expect some floating from him.

Meds wrote:In one aspect of this am I sitting beside RD and saying Gillis is a moron.....

Edler has a tendancy to play soft when he is capable of being physical. Shoulda waited it out and seen what the kid can do when he's actually playing for a new contract. Now that he's got it I expect some floating from him.

Edler was fantastic (until injured) on our cup run 2 years ago. Had he been a free agent that summer he gets over 6 mill on the open market very easily. He had couple of tough games against the Kings but that only lowers his value in the minds of Canuck fans, in terms of his league wide value it wouldn't matter in the slightest.

There was no point waiting when a very reasonable deal was sitting on the table. If he's healthy this year the price only goes up. Even if he isn't healthy he probably still gets over 5 mill in free agency.

Meds wrote:In one aspect of this am I sitting beside RD and saying Gillis is a moron.....

Edler has a tendancy to play soft when he is capable of being physical. Shoulda waited it out and seen what the kid can do when he's actually playing for a new contract. Now that he's got it I expect some floating from him.

Edler was fantastic (until injured) on our cup run 2 years ago. Had he been a free agent that summer he gets over 6 mill on the open market very easily. He had couple of tough games against the Kings but that only lowers his value in the minds of Canuck fans, in terms of his league wide value it wouldn't matter in the slightest.

There was no point waiting when a very reasonable deal was sitting on the table. If he's healthy this year the price only goes up. Even if he isn't healthy he probably still gets over 5 mill in free agency.

Potatoe1 wrote:-I have liked the steady play of Jason Garrison, but I don't like the fact he's pushed Alex Edler to the right side. Edler has never looked comfortable playing there and last night was no exception. I'm not sure what the solution is so I hope Alex can make incremental progress through out the season.

Potatoe1 wrote:-I have liked the steady play of Jason Garrison, but I don't like the fact he's pushed Alex Edler to the right side. Edler has never looked comfortable playing there and last night was no exception. I'm not sure what the solution is so I hope Alex can make incremental progress through out the season.

I found it interesting that Alex Edler will earn $3.25m next year.

I noticed that too. Edler must be gambling the amount paid into escrow will be less down the road as the lockout will hurt HRR in the short term...thus he takes the majority of the dollars later in the deal.

It probably is some boring reason like that, but from a Canucks perspective if they are expecting Edler to learn to play the other side at a high level, I can see why they would give him this season and next at a relatively low salary before it shoots up to $6m.